Tim Steidten is the sporting director FSG would love…

Tim Steidten is the sporting director FSG would love and could even help Liverpool find their next manager

Many football supporters are obsessed with transfers and the idea that spending enormous sums - ‘winning’ the transfer window – is the fast track pathway to glory. Yet the list of the most expensive signings of all time demonstrates a big price tag is no guarantee of success, either on an individual or team level.

Getting the most out of any transfer is extremely difficult, no matter the cost. It won’t set pulses racing or win any banter wars on social media, but appointing the correct person to oversee the transfer process is arguably more important for a club than any one signing can possibly be.

Liverpool have proved this theory better than most, with the work of former sporting director Michael Edwards so successful that fans joke about building a statue of him outside Anfield. His successor Julian Ward oversaw the signings of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez but will leave the club this summer. But who will replace him at Liverpool?

Football Insider have claimed that it could be Tim Steidten, a 43-year-old former defensive midfielder who was sporting director at Bayer Leverkusen but left by mutual consent in March. Steidten was strongly linked with a move to Chelsea following Todd Boehly’s purchase of the club last year, while Manchester United and Tottenham as well as Liverpool are now reportedly considering acquiring his services.

The business conducted by Bayer Leverkusen illustrates why he would appeal to Fenway Sports Group. Per Transfermarkt, Steidten’s now former club have a net spend of just 24.25million euros since 2018/19, the sixth most among the 18 clubs currently in the German top flight.

Yet the value of their squad is estimated at 416.35million euros, an increase of 58.4 per cent on five years ago and the fourth highest in the Bundesliga. Though their figures differ, a study this week by CIES Football Observatory ranks the Leverkusen squad as the 20^th most valuable in Europe, despite only having 25 players when the 19 clubs above them own 40.2 on average. Jurgen Klopp likes working with a tight-knit squad and Steidten has helped to assemble a relatively valuable one on a much smaller budget than Liverpool would offer him.

Leverkusen place a huge emphasis on data in their scouting, which will only endear Steidten further to the brains trust at Anfield. Simon Rolfes, managing director of sport at Leverkusen, explained further when talking to Bulinews.com in November.

“We pre-filter players in some cases, especially in markets where we can't watch every game. It's all becoming a lot more intelligent, and you can do much more with data than just tracking passes,” he said. “For example, limb-tracking can be used in the future to find out how often players turn their heads to observe their environment,” Rolfes added, and that’s likely the sort of statistical work Liverpool’s next director of research, Will Spearman, and his team are undertaking already.

Without wanting to look too far into the future, Steidten was involved in appointing Xabi Alonso as Leverkusen manager last October. The former Reds midfielder has steered them to the fourth best record in the Bundesliga during his tenure, when they were 17^th when he took over.

Alonso could potentially be in the running to take over when Klopp leaves Liverpool, and perhaps having someone at the club with whom he has worked may tip the balance in his favour. But that’s for another day. For now, Steidten looks to have the credentials the club will be looking for in their next sporting director. Anyone who uses data to make the most of the transfer market will always have a chance of succeeding with FSG.

A version of this article was first published in March 2023

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